Robbie has a naturally cheery disposition. So, as a gay Mormon, he never felt the same sense of sadness or the suicidal feelings he saw in so many of his fellow gay Mormons. Instead, Robbie felt safe, loved, and embraced by the Church and its members as he was open about his sexuality. For him, the distinction between homosexual feelings and actions was a useful one, and for years it allowed him to stay happily engaged in his Mormon community. But now Robbie is setting out in a new direction as he begins to date men. Ironically, it is his Mormon upbringing that instilled in him a desire to have a family, causing him to choose a life outside the church (he knows he could never have a family with a woman). Robbie realized that, if it was simply a sexual matter, he could have made a relationship with a woman work, but he simply does not have enough to give emotionally or spiritually to a woman and he knows it would have been unfair. He mourns his separation with the Church–he knows that he could have stayed, that he could have gritted his teeth and endured to the end, but he takes the scriptures seriously when they say, “Men are that they might have joy.” He believes that the joy of which the scriptures speak is not a distant joy to be found in the afterlife, but something real and immediate to be embraced in the present. He is hopeful that he will be able to find that joy as he seeks a husband with whom he can raise children and attain his greatest potential for happiness in this life.

(The views expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect those of the producers of Far Between but are reflective of some aspects of what it means to be LGBT and Mormon today.)